USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume IV > Part 62
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these granaries have contained wheat in greater or less quantity ever since they have been constructed. Contrary to the practice of most grain raisers, Mr. Doyle has not sold wheat at the lowest market price quoted, and has held the grain so that 60 cents a bushel was the lowest price for which he ever sold, and $2.50 a bushel in war time.
His methods of farming have been to keep the land clean, plowed deep every year, and pulverize the surface as a dust mulch for hold- ing moisture. Some years he ran the Short- horn Durham with stock brought from Iowa, until limited pasture made it necessary; to abandon meat production and he then built up a herd of Jerseys and dairying is now a prominent feature of the farm. The cream sales from eleven cows afford an income of almost $25 a week.
This country estate of the Doyles is ad- jacent to Slidel, a country village built since the family came here. He contributed liberally to the erection of the village school, helped out the highways of the community, and was a leader in advocating a bond issue of $125,000 for the latteral road striking the main high- way at Krum. For twenty years he was an overseer of roads in his district, and was a member of the local school board until he de- clined to serve longer.
In operating his farm he has secured every implement that would lighten the burden of planting, cultivating and threshing. He was one of the first to introduce a tractor, and has found his Rumely economical in operation and available for a wide variety of service, since it pulls his separator and does the threshing. His threshing outfit has been used for public service. His house is equipped with the Delco lighting system, furnishing light and power for home and barns. He also has a complete hot and cold water system.
At Mulberry Gap, in Hancock County, Ten- nessee, December 13, 1868, Mr. Doyle mar- ried Miss Martha A. Burchett, a native of Lee County, Virginia. They were not quite sixteen years of age when they married, and together they have lived, worked and pros- pered for more than half a century. Her parents were Burrell and Margaret (Adams) Burchett, representing some of the oldest and most respected farming people of that section of Virginia. Her father died at the begin- ning of the Civil war and her mother in Lee County in 1888. Mrs. Doyle was the second of four children and was born December 14,
1852. Her oldest brother, Edward C., is a farmer in the old Virginia locality, as are also her brothers William S. and Joseph H.
Mr. and Mrs. Doyle have carefully reared their own family of children, and have also afforded a home to some of their grandchil- dren. Their oldest daughter, Kizzie, became the wife of James F. Christian, and both died at the Doyle home, their son, Bernice B. Christian, growing up with his grandparents and is now a farmer in that community and married Ola Hayes. The second child, Mary Emma, is the wife of Lee McAteer, of Valley View, Texas, and has three children, Ira, Charles and Willie Lee. Miller L., a farmer near Slidel, married Lena Cartwright, who died leaving two children, Earl C. and Laura Lee, and his second wife is Lucy Durham. Earl C. and Lura Lee Doyle also grew up in the home of their grandparents, and Earl is now a resident of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and married Lena May Watson. Edward Silas Doyle, of Slidel, married Mae Cartwright, and their children are Wilma, Lorene and Vinson. Ida Doyle is the wife of Mr. Ham- mack, of Sanger, Texas. Joseph Oscar Doyle, a farmer on the old homestead, married Lee Lloyd, and their children are Eva Pearl, Mar- garet Louise and William S., Jr. The younger children of Mr. and Mrs. Doyle, still a part of the home circle, are Lillie Gertrude, Hassie Myrtle and Nola .C.
The members of this household belong to the Missionary Baptist Church, and Mr. Doyle as a carpenter helped build the church edifice at Slidel. He is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World. During the war this family shared in the various patriotic activi- ties, including the Red Cross and Y. M. C. A., and did their share in the buying of bonds.
Mr. Doyle has always been a democratic voter. His first presidential ballot went to Samuel J. Tilden. As a youth in the days following the Civil war he was a deputy sheriff of Lee County, Virginia. At that time society was in great confusion and required a stern hand, frequently resulting in real fighting and loss of lives both among law- breakers and law officers. For his resolute part in that law and order movement Mr. Doyle was threatened with death by the out- law class. He also served for a time as a United States deputy marshal, and in this service carried out his duty unflinchingly in destroying stills and arresting moonshiners and counterfeiters. One night he destroved
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seven illicit stills. Every prisoner he ever took in this connection he delivered to the Federal Court at Abingdon. In 1892 Mr. Doyle supported Hogg for governor. Hogg was elected. He favored Mr. Bailey for gov- ernor in 1920, but voted the regular party ticket in the final election.
ED F. BATES has been a resident of Denton County for seventy years. In a long and use- ful life his energy has been productive through the avenue of agriculture and farm manage- ment. He is also a banker, and is the recog- nized historian of Denton County.
His family record is one of distinction and interest, and the name of his father, Rev. William E. Bates, will long be held in cherished recollection in many sections of North Texas. His grandfather was Reuben Bates, who was born and grew up in Vir- ginia. He became a noted carpenter and builder. For many years one of the most dis- tinguished examples of old southern architec- ture, pictured in nearly every American his- tory, is the home of Thomas Jefferson, Mon- ticello. The builder of that mansion was Reuben Bates. He was intimately acquainted with President Jefferson. He took as another building contract the erection of the Virginia State House. That proved his financial un- doing, and not long afterward he left Vir- ginia and settled in Kentucky. Reuben Bates married Nancy Edmond, and their children were: James P., who served as a colonel of a Kentucky regiment in the Confederate army, refugeed to Texas after the war, and in 1867 returned to Kentucky and died in Barren County ; Rev. William E. ; Willis Hub- bard, who came to Texas in 1853, was a member of Colonel Martin's Regiment of Texas troops during the war, was postmaster of Denton under Mr. Cleveland, and died in that city August 9, 1892; John Alexander, who came to Texas after the war and died in advanced years in Denton County; and Martha Washington, who became the wife of William Edmond and died in Barren County, Kentucky.
Rev. William E. Bates was born in Am- herst County. Virginia. October 2, 1812. He was twelve years of age when the family moved to Barren County, Kentucky. He grew up on the frontier, and his early education was acquired largely by a torchlight candle after the completion of the daily toil of the farm. At the age of twenty-one he professed
religion and joined! the Methodist Church. During his early years in Kentucky he was alternately a farmer, carpenter and flatboat- man, as circumstances demanded. He made several boating trips down the Mississippi to New Orleans. He entered the active ministry in 1843, and when the Methodist Church divided in 1844 he went with the Southern branch. He continued preaching in Kentucky until his advent to Texas.
Rev. William E. Bates came to Texas from Barren County in 1851, and made his first settlement in the southeast corner of Denton County, but later entered land about the center of the county, on the east line, where he resided until 1870, when he moved to a farm ten miles east of Denton. While the farm was his home, his time to a large extent was spent in the arduous labors of a circuit rider of the Methodist Church, and nothing could surpass his zeal and his efforts in behalf of church organization and the carrying of the Gospel to the most remote points of settle- ment in North and West Texas. He was ad- mitted to the East Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in November, 1853, being assigned as an itinerant preacher on the western border. He took deacon's orders from Bishop John Early November 4, 1854, and elder's orders from Bishop George F. Pierce November 14, 1858. His itinerant work was done on the western fringe of settlement in the counties of Collin, Grayson, Cooke, Denton, Tarrant, Parker, Wise, Jack, Montague and Clay. At one time his circuit included thirty-one appointments, which he was scheduled to cover once a month. He was on this circuit during 1866-67, amid the dangers and trials imposed by hostile Indians. Once as a victim of Indian warfare he barely missed an encounter which might have ended his career. Prior to the war he rode the circuit further east, and at the beginning of the war he was riding the Mckinney circuit. No conferences were held during the war, but he put in his time preaching at such appoint- ments locally as were made for him, and also in doing the important work of feeding and otherwise caring for the families of the sol- diers at the front. To this latter duty he was assigned by the "old men" of the Home Guard of the county, and his energies were fully employed in that line until the end of the war.
Hardly any material compensation worthy the name was paid to the itinerant minister of
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fifty years ago. Rev. Mr. Bates seldom re- ceived more than $100 a year. Zeal and faith alone sustained him during his long journeys on horseback, over swollen streams, follow- ing the trails which carried him to his appoint- ments. It was a life of exertion and simple and homely fare, but he was relieved of family responsibilities, since he had a half section of land at his home, with his sons old enough to cultivate and look after the cattle, sheep, hogs and horses. His instructions as a min- ister were to go as far out on the frontier as he found white settlers, and on some of these excursions he frequently was armed with a rifle for his personal protection. By 1869 these strenuous labors found him worn in body, and that year he was given super- numerary relations to the church. Thereafter he lived quietly, and died April 25, 1883, while a resident of Denton. After coming to Texas he became affiliated with the Masonic Order, being a member of the Royal Arch Chapter at Denton, and was buried under Masonic auspices.
On November 3, 1834, William E. Bates married Susan Wright. Her father was Jacob Wright and her mother, a Miss Lair. Edmond F. Bates was born March 22, 1851, in Barren County, Kentucky, and was brought to Denton County by his parents, who arrived here the first of November of the same year. During the first ten years of his life Mr. Bates attended a few subscription schools, then for four years the energies and thoughts of the people were completely engrossed in the progress of the war, and no schools were maintained. He lived on the home farm, shared in its labors, and has always kept in close touch with the agricultural welfare of Denton County. In 1881 he became a mer- chant in his home community, and remained there until 1900, when he moved to Denton, primarily to secure better school advantages for his children. Since coming to Denton he has considered himself somewhat in the re- tired class of business men. However, he owns a number of farms and has expended a large amount of capital in developing and improving them. He is also a stockholder and vice president of the Exchange National Bank of Denton.
As a man of good judgment and success- ful business record Mr. Bates has been the choice of his fellow citizens to bear a portion of the public burdens at Denton. He was chosen an alderman, and in 1907 was elected
mayor as successor of Mayor J. T. Simmons, and later was chosen as successor of Mayor Poe. During his terms as mayor the sewer system of Denton was installed, the water, light and power plant built, and the beginning made of macadamized street construction. In matters of politics Mr. Bates is a Jeffersonian democrat, like his ancestors. His first vote for president was given to Horace Greeley, the party's choice in 1872. He has also been a reverent follower of his father in religion and is one of the trustees of the Methodist Church at Denton. He is a Master Mason, has been secretary of the Denton Chapter and eminent commander of Denton Commandery No. 45, Knights Templar.
In Denton County December 30, 1874, Mr. Bates married Miss Mary L. McReynolds, who was born in Winston County, Mississippi, July 24, 1855. Her father, Stephen McRey- nolds, came to Texas from Mississippi in 1869. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Bates the oldest is Beulah Estelle, born June 28, 1878, wife of Ed Hill and mother of Vera, Jack. Ted, Lloyd, Mary Sue and Margaret. Susan L. Bates, born November 20, 1882, is a gradu- ate of the College of Industrial Arts at Den- ton and of Columbia University of New York, and is now a member of the faculty of the Iowa Agricultural College at Ames. Ernest Leroy Bates, born October 9, 1887, is an electrician with the Philadelphia Electric Light Company. Mary Lorena, born in 1889, is the wife of Maurice Smith, of Willard, Ohio, and has two sons, Kenneth and Edward. Sidney Quinton Bates was born September 27. 1892, is a mechanical engineer in charge of the Hanack Manufacturing Company at Houston, and by his marriage to Ellen Erwin has a daughter, Mary Sue. Minnie Belle Bates, born December 29, 1893, is a graduate of the College of Industrial Arts and of Co- lumbia University and is a teacher in the Uni- versity of Kentucky at Lexington. Kathleen, the youngest child, was born March 27. 1898, and finished the course in the Denton College of Industrial Arts, and has been her father's able housekeeper since the death of Mrs. Bates on March 27, 1914, at the age of fifty- nine.
The Bates home, occupying a fine site on Sycamore Street, is an interesting combina- tion of the old Colonial and modern architec- ture, and is of Mr. Bates' design and con- struction. He also built a home at the village of Lloyd.
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A work and service that will give Mr. Bates a place in the esteem of future generations was the compiling of the history of Denton County, a small volume issued in 1918, and the result of three years of toil and effort. He undertook this work at the instance of the Old Settlers Association of Denton County. The volume reviews the history of the early settlements in the county, giving incidents of the trials and hardships of the pioneers, and contains many letters describ- ing actual experiences in the bloody and ex- citing days of the county. This, Mr. Bates' only literary effort, entailed a vast amount of correspondence and detail work.
WALTER MONROE MILLER. In this record of Johnson County it will be found that its voters have not failed in appreciation of the ability and sterling characteristics of native sons of the county, not a few of whom have been called to serve in offices of public trust. Of this number is the present efficient and popular sheriff, whose name initiates this paragraph and whose administration is prov- ing most vigorous and satisfactory. His birth occurred on a farm lying along the Brazos River, in the southwest part of Johnson County, March 8, 1881. His father, Martin Van Buren Miller, came from Mississippi to Texas prior to the Civil war and he repre- sented the Lone Star State as a gallant sol- dier of the Confederacy during that conflict. After the close of the war he seems to have settled at a point on the Brazos River and to have engaged in farming and stockraising on a somewhat modest scale. Indians frequently made depredations in this section of the state in that period, and Mr. Miller lost his stock of horses through such activity on the part of the redmen. He was about forty-four years of age at the time of his death, in 1884, when his son, Walter M., was a little more than an infant. He married Miss Margaret Wright, who was probably born in Bosque County, this state, and who is now one of the venerable pioneer women of Johnson County, where, at the age of seventy-five years, she resides with her son, Walter M., the sheriff of the county. Of her five children four are living and Walter M. is the youngest of the number ; James W. is a prosperous farmer in Floyd County; Isaac Arnold is a resident of Helena, Montana; and Mary Magdalene is the wife of Albert R. McPherson, of Cle- burne. After the death of the father the
widowed mother found her mind and heart taxed in providing for her children, as she was left without financial resources. As ex- pediency prompted, she moved with her chil- dren from time to time into different parts of the county, and sometimes a tent repre- sented the family home. It was under such humble and even precarious conditions that the future sheriff of Johnson County passed the period of his childhood and early youth. His mother eventually became the wife of T. B. Casstevens, an old settler of Johnson County, and everywhere known as "Doc Cass-Stevens." The family home after this marriage was maintained at Pleasant Point, east of Cleburne, and there Mrs. Stevens remained until the death of her second hus- band, in 1919, when she became a member of the home circle of her youngest son, by whom she is accorded the utmost filial solicitude. T. B. Casstevens came to Texas from Illinois prior to the war between the states, and he likewise was a Confederate soldier in a Texas regiment. He was three times married, and of the two children by his first wife one is living, Thomas Casstevens. Of the second marriage were born a large family of children, perhaps twelve in number, and all of the survivors are still residents of Johnson County, includ- ing three sets of twins. Mr. Casstevens was one of the successful farmers and stockmen of the Lillian district of Johnson County, maintained high ideals of personal and civic stewardship, was liberal and progressive, in- fluential in community affairs and commanded unqualified confidence and esteem. He had no toleration of dishonesty or deceit, and in all of the relations of life he "stood four square to every wind that blows." He had no pre- dilection for politics, save to cast his vote and support men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment and to mark his un- wavering allegiance to the principles of the democratic party. He contributed to the sup- port of religious work and while he attended church with much of regularity he was never formally identified with any church organ- ization as member. Mrs. Margaret (Wright) Miller-Casstevens was reared in the home of her maternal grandparents and as a girl she did her share of arduous field work on the farm. Her marriage to Mr. Miller was solemnized somewhere in the vicinity of San Antonio, and thereafter her life was one of continuous association with farm enterprise until the death of her second husband. She
H.J. Miller Sheriff-
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is an earnest member of the Missionary Bap- tist Church and in her long and useful life she has borne to the full the "heat and burden of the day," so that she is well entitled to the peace and repose that are now hers, in the home of her youngest child, the sheriff of Johnson County.
Sheriff Miller attended school at Pleasant Point and Venus, and at the latter place he pursued higher studies in Burnetta College, then under the supervision of its honored founder, Professor Thomas. Mr. Miller in- itiated his independent career by continuing his active alliance with farm industry, and thus his attention was engrossed until he became sheriff of the county, and he was a tenant farmer at the time of his election. He was one of five candidates for sheriff in the pri- mary election in 1916, all other candidates being men of prominence. It required the "run-off" primary to decide the contest, and in this Mr. Miller defeated Mr. Battle, one of the old settlers of the county, and was made the chosen candidate for the office of sheriff, to which he was elected in the following No- vember. He succeeded Sheriff Cooper, and four years later he was re-elected. He made his third campaign for the office with a basic statement that twenty years had passed since a sheriff had held office in the county for three successive terms. His able administration and personal popularity again spoke in his favor, and he was again elected, thus justify- ing his preliminary statement in connection with his third candidacy, to the effect that history sometimes repeated itself.
Within the long administration of Sheriff Miller he has "entertained" at the county jail of Johnson County a number of specially no- torious Texan criminals, and among them were some brought from Somerville County for incarceration in the jail of Johnson County. Of this contingent was a bandit and bank robber who was wounded in the fight that ensued when his captors closed in upon him, his wounds being such that he died as a result thereof after he had been placed in the jail at Cleburne. "Country Bates," or C. H. Barton, was another of the Somerville outlaws, and these and other outlaws at one time in charge of Sheriff Miller were con- nected with bad criminal work both in Texas and other states. Capital offenses during the regime of Sheriff Miller have been few, and probably forty men have been sentenced to the penitentiary at Huntsville for crimes com-
mitted in Johnson County. Illicit sale and dispensing of intoxicating liquors in the county has been very limited until recently, when illicit stills have here multiplied, as a result of national prohibition, and the boot- legging of moonshine whiskey has increased. Under the vigorous direction of Sheriff Miller one still has been located and destroyed and a few barrels of mash have been poured out, but Johnson County, as a whole, is perhaps as clear of this illicit traffic as any county of this section of Texas.
January 1, 1893, recorded the marriage of Mr. Miller to Miss Willie Mandaleene Harris, who was born in 'Blount County, Alabama, and who was fifteen years of age at the time of the family removal to Texas. She is a daughter of J. Cobb Harris and Bettie (Davis) Harris. Mr. Harris has long been identified with farm in- dustry in varied forms, and is now a success- ful farmer and dairyman in the vicinity of Cleburne. Mrs. Harris is the only surviving child of her parents, her father having been an old-time cotton planter in Alabama and having met with heavy financial reverses at the time of the Civil war. While the war was in progress he purchased large numbers of slaves, in the belief that the cause of the Con- federacy would be won and that slave prop- erty would always be secure. Mr. and Mrs. Harris have six sons and four daughters : Luther F., George C., Mrs. Walter M. Miller, Mattie (Mrs. F. D. Holland), Birdie (Mrs. J. O. Vanderslice); J. E. and J. C. (twins), Hugh K., Clarence C. and Eunice. Sheriff and Mrs. Miller have six children, namely : Walterine, Buran Harris, Willard and Wilma (twins). Ray Goodwin, and Delfrancis.
MARION SANSOM. The career of Marion Sansom, a prominent cattleman and banker, ' is worthy of emulation by every youth of America. Its steady development from the work of a farmer boy to a commanding posi- tion in the foremost ranks of the country's financiers; from a small adventure in the business of breeding cattle to the head of one of the greatest cattle companies of the United States, with branches at all the principal live- stock markets of the west, shows what can be accomplished by the exercise of pluck, persistence and perseverance, directed intelli- gently and backed by absolute honesty and the settled purpose to make the spoken word as good as a gilt-edged bond. Mr. Sansom is a native Texan, born in Madison County
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June 20, 1853. His father. R. P. Sansom, was a Tennesseean, coming to Texas in 1836, soon after the Texas declaration of indepen- dence and the battle of San Jacinto had settled the fact that Mexican sovereignty over the country north of the Rio Grande had ceased to exist. Marion Sansom's mother was Susan Manning, daughter of Stephen Manning, cele- brated for his military prowess in the Mexi- can war. It is, therefore, not surprising that Marion Sansom was found doing valiant serv- ice for liberty and humanity in the world- wide struggle against military autocracy. The incentive to do his best in the cause of liberty was an inheritance from his ancestors. The family moved from Madison County to John- son County in 1859, settling near Alvarado. Here young Sansom grew up on a farm, later moving to town, where he engaged in busi- ness but continued to supervise the operations on his lands and the raising and feeding of cattle, which had been a controlling fad with him from his early years. In 1892 he re- moved to Fort Worth, coincident with the be- ginning of the erection of the Armour & Swift packing plants and the construction of the stockyards, which have made the name of Fort Worth famous in the annals of live stock market development. Here he promptly allied himself with various branches of the live stock industry, and centered his efforts largely in promotion of the cattle business. His eminent success is demonstrated from the fact that he is one of the best known men in the cattle business in the Southwest. He is at the head of the Cassidy-Southwestern Live Stock Com- mission Company. which maintains branches at all the principal markets. He is president of the Fort Worth Live Stock Commission Company of Kansas City, and president of M. Sansom & Company, wholesale brokers and retailers of grain and feeds, being one of the largest concerns of its character in the South- west. He has further accentuated his interest in cattle by the purchase and operation of a large breeding and finishing ranch northwest of the Fort Worth Stockyards, and it is generally conceded that probably no other man has done more for the promotion of the cattle industry in Texas and Oklahoma than Mr. Sansom. When the Stockyards National Bank was established he was chosen its first presi- dent. He subsequently resigned that office be- cause of the pressure and multitude of other business interests. Mr. Sansom was also a director on the board of the State National Bank of Fort Worth when the bank built the
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